XCOM Terrain Pack General Discussion

[Hobbes]

XCOM Terrain Pack 1.0.0 - Released (January 28th, 2022)

Open source terrain mod packs for the original UFO: Enemy Unknown/XCom: UFO Defense game that contains 70+ new terrains and an expanded globe. Plus all the necessary tools for creating terrains. Requires OpenXCom, UFO2000 or the original game to be played.

Version 1.0.0 has a Creative Commons CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 license.

Requires latest OXCE. OXC only not currently supported.

Mod Portal https://openxcom.mod.io/terrain-pack

Official repository: https://github.com/Hobbes74/XCOM-Terrain-Pack

XCOM Terrain Pack Discord channel - https://discord.com/invite/5f2KRVjqBN



List of Features (OpenXCom)
UFO Assault/Recovery terrains
* CULTAFARM (new Farm map blocks)
* DESERT (variations of Grassland, Polar, Savanna, Steppe, Taiga and Tundra biomes)
* DESERT MOUNT (combined DESERT and MOUNT terrains)
* FOREST (variations of Grassland, Savanna, Steppe, Taiga and Tundra biomes)
* FOREST MOUNT (combined FOREST and MOUNT terrains)
* INDUSTRIAL UFO (INDUSTRIAL with landed UFOs)
* MADCITY UFO (new URBAN map blocks with landed UFOs)
* NATIVE UFO (NATIVE with landed UFOs)
* JUNGLE POLAR (FOREST swamp with variants for Grassland, Polar, Savanna, Steppe, Taiga and Tundra biomes)
* JUNGLE MOUNT (combined JUNGLE and MOUNT terrains)
* MOUNT (combined POLAR and TUNDRA variants)
* TFTD ATLANT DESERT (adapted ATLANT TFTD terrain)
* TFTD PLANE DESERT (adapted crashed PLANE TFTD terrain, with Taiga and Polar variants)
* TFTD MU JUNGLE (Original JUNGLE + MU TFTD terrain)

Terror Site terrains:
* AIRFIELD
* APARTMENT (original version released for XCOM)
* AREA 51 (original version released for XCOM)
* COLD ISLE (Polar research station)
* COMMERCIAL (expansion of APARTMENT)
* DAWN CITY (original XCOM version and two OXC variants)
* DOWNTOWN
* EXPANDED TERROR
* INDUSTRIAL
* MAD CITY (new map blocks for UFO Urban terrain + Snow variant)
* NATIVE (Tropical Terror Site)
* POLIS (four 60x60 buildings for URBAN)
* RAILYARD
* SLUM (with highway pass)
* STORM MOUNTAIN (Underground base)
* TFTD CARGOSHIP (TFTD terrain, 1st stage mission only)
* TFTD CARGOSHIP PORT (CARGOSHIP + PORT)
* TFTD PORT INDUSTRIAL (PORT + INDUSTRIAL)
* TFTD ISLAND (vanilla TFTD terrain)
* TFTD LINER (1st stage mission only)
* TFTD LINER PORT (LINER + PORT terrain)
* TFTD PORT (vanilla TFTD terrain)
* TFTD PORT URBAN (new map blocks TFTD PORT terrain)

Alien Base terrains:
* ALIEN COLONY
* ALIEN HIVE

Other OpenXCom Features:
* Reworked Geoscape, including several new textures and cities.
* Country Zones have been redesigned to reflect better the countries' geography.
* Terrain of terror sites will match geographical locations (large city terrains only appear at some cities, etc.).
* North Atlantic, South Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans can now have Alien Terror, Alien Base & Alien Research missions assigned.
* Several new countries added.

[7Saturn]

For what it's worth: I thank you for all you efforts, especially knowing, how long you have been contributing to communities. I was there when UFO2000 was still alive and kicking and even today maps with your terrains spice up my OpenXcom experience considerably. I can totally understand that you put a stop to being ripped off by folks out there, that have no regard for honoring other peoples efforts and respecting their wishes, when it comes to how your content may be used. It's just a shame, that a certain level of honor and decency seems to be missing in some of the modders out there. One might think, that we are all together in this, but apparently we are not. 

[Hobbes]

For what it's worth: I thank you for all you efforts, especially knowing, how long you have been contributing to communities. I was there when UFO2000 was still alive and kicking and even today maps with your terrains spice up my OpenXcom experience considerably. I can totally understand that you put a stop to being ripped off by folks out there, that have no regard for honoring other peoples efforts and respecting their wishes, when it comes to how your content may be used. It's just a shame, that a certain level of honor and decency seems to be missing in some of the modders out there. One might think, that we are all together in this, but apparently we are not. 

OpenXCom modding will take a turn, for the better or worse. Modding in general has turned more professional since the UFO2000 and early OpenXCom days.

With the Terrain Pack now with an open source license and people moving towards using other tools like repositories and mod sites, it will be easier to report license violations. Honest mistakes can and will be forgiven, but continued and systematic abuse will not go unchecked anymore.

I wanna to recycle this thread but you beat me into it

[Finnik]

Btw, what would be counted as violation and abuse? AFAIK, Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License, that you use for terrain pack allows people to use your content as they want (copy, distribute and modify) if credited and also using same license (because of shareAlike). Crediting is pretty simple too, I did not find a solid example, and description of "proper reference" is pretty vague. I'm also using same license for FtA, and I made such a formula for crediting, for example:

Code: [Select]

* **Luke83**, **efrenespartano**, **Solarius_Scorch**, **ohartenstein23**, **hellrazor**, **Bulletdesigner** and **wolwerin** and other members of I.D.T. and OpenXcom community, developers of [Community Map Pack](https://openxcom.mod.io/community-map-pack) - terrains, maps.

AFAIK, nobody use their mods for direct commercial purposes (selling it in form of standalone game), only accepting donations. I saw tons of examples in another modding communities, where people share content with CC licenses and still ask donations in very noticeable form (Donate button on forum page, Patreon site, etc.). So, as I can understand, its pretty easy not to refer terrain pack and use all its assets as you want, can't see how it can be really "abused" after it became open source.

[Hobbes]

Btw, what would be counted as violation and abuse? AFAIK, Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License, that you use for terrain pack allows people to use your content as they want (copy, distribute and modify) if credited and also using same license (because of shareAlike). Crediting is pretty simple too, I did not find a solid example, and description of "proper reference" is pretty vague. I'm also using same license for FtA, and I made such a formula for crediting, for example:

Crediting (BY) is pretty simple to follow and fix, that's not the major one I'm worried about. I've also included some guidelines in the LICENSE about how to properly do it.

In any case, this is something that should be always open for discussion and clarification.

AFAIK, nobody use their mods for direct commercial purposes (selling it in form of standalone game), only accepting donations. I saw tons of examples in another modding communities, where people share content with CC licenses and still ask donations in very noticeable form (Donate button on forum page, Patreon site, etc.). So, as I can understand, its pretty easy not to refer terrain pack and use all its assets as you want, can't see how it can be really "abused" after it became open source.

Non-Commercial (NC) is the one that should give more issues, although some are pretty clear.

For instance, if you have a GPL license to your software bundle (which allows for commercial use), you can't add to it assets that are CC-NC.

Also, personal donations/gifts are OK, but what happens if you're running a mod business based on donations (which is common to happen in modding)? Creative Commons interprets 'commercial as activites that are primarily intended for commercial advantage or monetary compensation'. That's one grey area that the license leaves open on propose.

Finally, the SA (Share Alike) condition of the license also has its own set of requirements. If you take assets of the TP and modify and expand on them, then these assets must also be released with the same license (CC NC-BY-SA) of the original ones. But here there are a lot of possible solutions, depending on what is being exactly modified/adapted and the propose, and the size of the mod.

One final thing must be clear though: with this license, the Terrain Pack now truly belongs to the community.

CC NC-BY-SA means you or anyone else can take version 1.0.0 and keep developing it by yourself or even add it to your mod project for the original XCOM, UFO2000 or OXC, as long as you respect all the conditions of the original license.

[Finnik]

For instance, if you have a GPL license to your software bundle (which allows for commercial use), you can't add to it assets that are CC-NC.

He-he, that makes an issue, as by this you can't distribute your mod with OXC/OXCE or it forks, as it is licensed with GPL =) Don't think it makes much sense in our community.

Non-Commercial (NC) is the one that should give more issues, although some are pretty clear.

For instance, if you have a GPL license to your software bundle (which allows for commercial use), you can't add to it assets that are CC-NC.

Also, personal donations/gifts are OK, but what happens if you're running a mod business based on donations (which is common to happen in modding)? Creative Commons interprets 'commercial as activites that are primarily intended for commercial advantage or monetary compensation'. That's one gray area that the license leaves open on propose.

I have a very direct line here - with CC licensed content, you can't SELL your game of content. For instance, I can't put it in Steam. As long as your game is distributed for free and there are no CC-licensed assets behind some paywall, this is noncommercial. There is no gray area for me to share your Patreon page or share PayPal link.

[Hobbes]

He-he, that makes an issue, as by this you can't distribute your mod with OXC/OXCE or it forks, as it is licensed with GPL =) Don't think it makes much sense in our community.

I honestly considered giving the TP a GPL license but ended up against it for a matter of reasons:
1) Not everyone who contributed to the TP besides me (UFO2000 authors) would accept GPL. UFO2000 was GPL but the mods themselves are not. There are modders who will not contribute to a GPL license.
2) The TP contains modded original game files (tilesets mainly). Going GPL means: you have copyright over everything included, or permission to make it GPL. Also, by going GPL everyone could use those original game assets for their mods/games, which the XCOM IP holder might not like.
3) GPL has a lot of requirements on the license's terms to record changes to original files. They are too complicated for modders to follow.

I have a very direct line here - with CC licensed content, you can't SELL your game of content. For instance, I can't put it in Steam. As long as your game is distributed for free and there are no CC-licensed assets behind some paywall, this is noncommercial. There is no gray area for me to share your Patreon page or share PayPal link.

I have a very similar view regarding sales and Patreon/PayPal donations (there's even a link for the OXC donations page on the README and repository page).

But I also know modders and teams (for other games) that is a commercial business based on donations, even if they are clearly under a NC license. To me this is clearly a 'gray area' example, because just giving an NC license doesn't prove that you're actually using it for NC proposes. And there's a lot of people out there who will push the grey area.

[Finnik]

  I can't imagine business based on OXC modding, that would make any sense in terms of effort/profit, compared to other activities. For instance, making indie casual games on, say, Unity is way faster and has a clear monetization model. I have no idea how much gather with direct donations, but Patreon page of OXC community creators that I saw receive nothing, compared to effort value. OXC player base is too small, if you compare it to other communities.

[Hobbes]

I can't imagine business based on OXC modding, that would make any sense in terms of effort/profit, compared to other activities. For instance, making indie casual games on, say, Unity is way faster and has a clear monetization model. I have no idea how much gather with direct donations, but Patreon page of OXC community creators that I saw receive nothing, compared to effort value. OXC player base is too small, if you compare it to other communities.

This you just mentioned and the Shared Alike (SA) condition of the license also fortifies the Non-Commercial aspect.

If anyone decides to reuse its public assets, the mods need to have the same SA license as the original Terrain Pack, so any changes need to be shared also with everyone else.